Southampton
Terry Smith: Parallax
Prolific, committed and quietly subversive, Terry Smith is a major British artist who consistently works under the radar of the mainstream. He claims to have "no medium, no style, no continuity and no intention to change". His secret projects include wall drawings and "building cuts" in derelict East London houses and interventions during the reconstruction of Tate Modern and the refurbishment of the British Museum. This exhibition at the John Hansard Gallery, University of Southampton, which continues until 21 January 2012, brings together more than 50 works, in media which include drawing, photography, sculpture and film. It also features the premiere of Caracol (2011), a video installation using 25 singers from Caracas, Venezuela.
London
The Blue Rider: Centenary Symposium
The artistic group known as the Blue Rider - based around Wassily Kandinsky and Franz Marc, though Paul Klee and the composer Arnold Schoenberg were also closely linked - held its first exhibition at the Galerie Thannhauser, Munich, in December 1911. To mark the centenary, Tate Modern is hosting a two-day symposium (25-26 November) exploring themes such as the influence of Japanese and "primitive" art, the role that women played within the movement and why it remains relevant today. It will conclude with a performance of Kandinksy's play, The Yellow Sound (published 1912), by Richard Hand, professor of theatre and media drama at the University of Glamorgan, and his students, incorporating striking yellow giants' costumes as well as animation, unusual sound and scenographic effects.
• www.tate.org.uk/modern/eventseducation/symposia/blue_rider_programme.pdf
London
The Riots
The Tricycle Theatre in North London has long been acclaimed for powerful dramas based entirely on verbatim testimonies, whether from Guantanamo Bay or those involved in Bloody Sunday. When it became clear that the government was not going to hold a public inquiry into the summer riots, director Nicholas Kent and writer Gillian Slovo decided to step into the breach. The play, which continues until 10 December, draws on tweets by taxi drivers and moment-by-moment accounts by police to build a real-time picture of unfolding events. It also uses interviews with politicians, teachers, lawyers, community leaders, victims and onlookers to provide a richly textured analysis of what happened, why it happened - and how we can prevent a recurrence.
London
The Ladykillers
Mrs Wilberforce (Marcia Warren) is an eccentric old lady who lives alone with her parrots in a strange lopsided house in King's Cross. Professor Marcus (Peter Capaldi) and his four friends, the world's most unlikely group of criminals, move in as part of their plan to hold up a security van. They are convinced they can pull the wool over her eyes. Yet as soon as they try to use her as cover, she proves far smarter than they expect, and their plot starts to go hilariously awry. The Ladykillers (1955), starring Alec Guinness and Peter Sellers, is one of the classic Ealing comedies. William Rose's screenplay has now been adapted by Graham Linehan for this new stage production. Directed by Sean Foley, it previews at the Gielgud Theatre on 26 November for a booking period up to 18 February 2012.
London
Time and Memory: Cecilia Edefalk and Gunnel Wahlstrand
This exhibition at the Parasol Unit (until 12 February) brings together the work of two leading contemporary Swedish artists. Well known since the late 1980s, Cecilia Edefalk is fascinated by echoes, repetitions and the disturbing links that can open up between the present and past. Often working in series, she "choreographs" her shows by displaying her paintings upside down and at unexpected angles. Gunnel Wahlstrand graduated in 2003 but her work has already been exhibited worldwide. Haunted by memory and the father who died while she was a baby, she uses meticulously accurate drawings and paintings of motifs from family photograph albums to mine her personal history.